There are qualities inside you that can override every obstacle faced in this earth. When we understand who lives in us and is our Helper, there’s no challenge that makes us afraid. The key to overcoming is not perfection, but perseverance.
I remember watching television coverage of the famous swimmer, Michael Phelps, in his quest for the new Olympic gold record. During the 7th race he was behind the Croatian swimmer the entire time, but a photo finish moment would determine his destiny. With 6 inches left to go, his opponent lifted his head and reached out for the wall…but Phelps kept his head down, allowing for one more stroke. Stretching his right hand out, he touched the wall 1\100 of a second before the hand of his opponent, and history was made. One extra stroke and that tiny extra stretch was the difference between victory and defeat!
Paul had this attitude as He reached for his best life: “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which area head, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14).
I believe God offers us the opportunity to live and walk the same way that His Son, Jesus, walked—regardless of the unique challenges our world faces today. Each challenge is an opportunity to discover the God-solution and grow in understanding of Him. Each challenge brings a supernatural answer, favor, insight, and experience that makes you wiser than before and more able to walk in God’s ways.
God’s salvation is free, but a miracle life is not easy, free, or cheap! A life of miracles requires risk. A life of miracles requires decision. A life of miracles is lived without fear of making mistakes. Living it will require your focus, commitment, determination, faith, and total effort in the laboratory of your life, “so you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God” (Rom. 12:2).
Do you have a dream that you are delaying? Is there a vision that you have stopped visiting? Does your destiny feel denied? I have learned that one of the great secrets of life is to just begin.
I guess I could be accused of beginning too many projects, too many buildings, too many countries, too many books, too many events, and too many enterprises. Let me just say that if I am to fall on my face, at least I know that I will fall forward, and that is progress!
When I go over to Russia and look into their eyes, feel their emotion and see where one van could reach one thousand villages or one evangelist with one hundred dollars could fill a tent with a thousand people each night, I am stirred to find money for the harvest. God never intended for anyone to be lost and spend an eternity in a hell designed for the devil. He gave the greatest gift of his Son for the salvation of people. He is constantly looking for men and women to get involved in his plan of redemption.
Every lost person is a mission field, and every Christian is a missionary. GOD NEEDS YOU!
Without you His hands are tied, His voice is silenced and His feet are sunk in the sand. He has not given His great Gospel plan to angels to proclaim, nor allowed His Son to walk on the earth like He did for forty days after the resurrection. He has entrusted to us the Gospel and believes that we can get this most important job done!
The key to success is not the absence of mistakes or failures, but the ability to learn from them.
As we travel the nations and work in new cultures, we have opportunity on a regular basis to make mistakes, as well as see others make mistakes. I actually carry a notebook and write every decision or incident that went wrong. Why do I spend time doing that? Two reasons. First, I do not want to repeat the same mistake twice. Second, I do not want to repeat the same mistake twice! Memories can fade so it’s good to keep a written memory of the day’s decisions. The learning curve teaches us that haste is the forerunner to mistakes.
Haste has ruined many a budding love story and many prosperous business partnerships. We live with a God who has planned the universe and He has some long range plans for you. Build your life with an expectation that He is building it with you, and don’t get in a hurry and take the detour of mistakes!
Proverbs 28:20
A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.
For many years in Russia we gathered as a missionary team each morning from 9 AM – 10AM. Our times were spent praying for the harvest. We were expecting the Lord to provide strategies for us as a team, and to develop divine opportunities for us to make known the mysteries of the Gospel. We discovered great value in these seasons of team prayer.
I remember specifically one morning the Lord highlighted a city on the map called Ust-Kut. We had never even heard of this place but began to pray for it fervently. A few weeks later we were ministering in Nerungry, deep in the Russian forest approximately 6 time zones to the east of Moscow. Getting to this destination took some concerted effort as we flew over about 8 hours of dense, wild Russian forest, traveled on back roads and weathered freezing temperatures. While conducting this conference in Nerungry, a Pastor from Ust-Kut approached us and told of his church planting efforts in his very isolated area off the coast of Lake Baikal. We were so excited to meet the pastor and learn of his work! Soon after this meeting we found ourselves in his region conducting a leadership conference and planting churches in towns that had never heard the Gospel before. WOW! What a testimony to the power of prayer!
Let’s remember: The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results! James 5:16b
In one of our large events in Africa, we were told by the organizers not to expect to start on time. “Here in Africa the opening night is just a test run where we work out our problems.”
Can you imagine? There are 75,000 people preparing to gather. People are already standing on the field hours before the meetings are to begin! Yet, the expectation of a group of adult men was, ‘don’t worry if we don’t start on time, well, we never do…’ So, in other words, failure is acceptable!
Ask yourself a simple question: Where have I set the standard for my life? Is failure my expectation, or is overcoming the impossible where I set my goal in life?
How would you handle a situation like this, if in just a matter of an hour you were to address this crowd and you had no lights and no sound?
Action was required, so we fired the 30 organizers and asked for 40, 14-year-old male volunteers. Why? They had not yet experienced failure! They would climb where no one else would climb, lifting lights and scaling poles! Are you willing to scale insurmountable odds?
If those 40 boys had not stepped to the line, what would have happened that night? Those 75,000 people who came looking for hope, searching for a miracle, and expecting good news would have left empty and disappointed!
When I began global ministry I had two part-time jobs and attended Bible school full-time in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, but the key was my passion to begin ministry. One day the school had a guest come with a list of all the opportunities available in the world. I looked at the list, then looked at the $50 in my bank account, and decided I could make it as far as the Nevada desert where the Paiute Indians were considered a mission field.
The school said I needed to have $500 and a car in three weeks, and I told them I would have them. A few nights later I was watching Christian TV with my mother. I thought I heard a voice say to give the $50 I had to the preacher on TV. I said, “NO! I need the $50 more than he does!”
I thought about it the next day and decided that if it was God Who said to give, then there would be a blessing in obeying. If it was just emotion saying to give, then if I gave my $50 in faith with joy, there would still be a blessing. So I gave.
What happened next? Nothing. Nothing happened the next day, the next week, or the next 10 days. But after two weeks I heard a knock at the door. When I opened it, standing there was a divorced, single mother who worked at the school. She handed me an envelope with $500 in it, saying she needed to sleep. For two weeks God had been waking her up every night and telling her to give $500 to Kevin McNulty. I asked her if it was a Wednesday that He first spoke and she said yes…the Wednesday I gave the $50! Well, that got me on my way to the desert and around the world, and I haven’t stopped since!
Joseph, the man appointed second in command of all Egypt, could not be denied prosperity because he kept his heart right. If God could make a man like Joseph, who was in the chains of slavery, prosperous, then surely he can fill your life with success.
Joseph is a study in right attitudes and right believing. In the midst of tremendous trials he never lost sight of the dream established in his heart. Joseph started in a pit, thrown there by his brothers. He landed in prison when falsely accused, but he didn’t finish there.
It doesn’t matter if you start in a slum, an orphanage, a lousy home or no home at all. What counts is where you are going! And what you are doing with the dream that God has placed in your heart!
Jesus started in a manger, but he didn’t stay there!
Rome did not fall because of war, but from boredom and avarice. Alexander the Great did not die in battle, but from boredom in a drunken stupor. We are not designed to live in the safe harbor, but on the high seas. The pastors and leaders of society that fall today do not do so in the effort and struggle to succeed, but in the boredom of their success. Do not allow the hardships you may face today to reveal a crybaby within you, but rise to the task at hand and discover the way to overcome.
The great businessmen of yesterday were not those who waited for retirement and watched a clock. We don’t remember the great spiritual institutions of a different era, but we do remember and are inspired by the men and women who pioneered them in the heat of battle. There is no life marked solely by success, but by failures which rose to success.
Friends, do not dream of a safety net, but of a net that can catch fish. Your safety is in your courageous heart to pioneer new projects and new dreams. Some of you will be the tip of spear in the battle, and others will be the force behind the spear that gives it power to thrust forward. All the positions are important when you go to war.
Jesus did not pay a price for you to be weak.
Jesus did not become your substitute so you would fear.
Jesus did not fill you with His spirit for you to run from the battle.
This is your greatest hour. This is our time! Do not let the winds of adversity howl in your ears driving you to hide behind safe doors. The world is waiting to hear your voice speaking peace to the storm!
Several years ago while driving across the farmlands of Southern Ukraine we stopped to buy fuel. Our team leader decided to ignore the sticker that said our car required high-octane fuel, and proceeded to fill the car up with the cheaper gas. Fortunately for us our car had a special shut off valve, and after driving just a few miles the car shut down. We were grateful that our Russian team was familiar with syphoning gas, enabling us to transfer this fuel to another car and walk back to the station for a new container of high-octane gasoline. Reality set in for this team—there was no substitute for the real thing!
In our lives, let’s remember, time spent with God is time spent fueling your high-performance engine with the most efficient, cost effective, eco-friendly power source available! Lord, we ask you to inject us with your heavenly fuel today!
“The Spirit is a help to our feeble hearts… And we are conscious that all things are working together for good to those who have love for God, and have been marked out by his purpose” (Rom 8:26a, 28 BBE).
